This invention relates generally to the means for supporting a motor in a blender appliance and, more specifically, relates to a combined washer and collar which supports a motor with respect to a housing in a manner that allows the motor to shift laterally with respect to its axis.
The typical food blending appliance as used by people involved in food preparation for the last several decades has included a power unit or base which supports a vessel in which blades are mounted to cut, chop and mix food and liquids placed in the vessel. The motor mounted in the base is positioned with its armature shaft in a vertical position extending through the top of the housing where it is provided with a means for detachably coupling the armature shaft to the blade assembly carried in the bottom of the vessel. The motor drives the blade assembly directly at relatively high speeds, making it important that the armature shaft and the connection with the blade assembly of the vessel be accurately aligned to eliminate vibrations which might be caused by any eccentricity.
The lower end of the blender vessel typically has an accurately dimensioned portion which fits into a support ring or similar construction mounted on the top of the power unit housing. However, even with the blender vessel accurately located with respect to the motor housing, there is some tendency for there to be misalignment between the vertical axis of the motor armature and the axis of the rotatable support for the blades in the blender vessel. Accordingly, it has been known in the art for many years to provide the motor with a mounting with respect to the housing such that it may shift laterally a small amount to accomplish the aligning of the axis of the armature with the axis of the rotatable blade assembly. This mounting has typically included resilient wave washers which restrain the motor mounting pads from vibrating, but still allow movement of the motor pads in a horizontal plane. The wave washers which were conventionally applied above and below the pads on the motor frame were difficult to sort and assemble to the various motor mounting pads, such difficult presenting increased problems when attempts were made to automate the assembly of the motor to the power unit housing.